A young boy and his grandfather set out in a birchbark canoe early one spring morning. Under the patient and gentle guidance of his grandfather, the boy gradually comes to respect the ways of nature and to understand his own place in the world.

In the first of three linked stories, a young boy and his grandfather set out in a birchbark canoe early one spring morning. Together, they discover the peaceful beauty of the lake. In the second story, the sun rises high in the summer sky as they climb a rocky cliff for a bird's-eye view of the land. And, finally, as an autumn night descends, they venture into the woods. Under the patient and gentle guidance of his grandfather, the boy gradually comes to respect the ways of nature and to understand his own place in the world.

Reviews"Filled with lessons of love and respect for Mother Earth, this book is packed with many Ojibway cultural references for young readers. Noshen and his grandfather, Mishomis, set off in a birchbark canoe, climb a mountain and stand off a pack of wolves - all in one day. Noshen learns that he is brother to the wolves and need not be afraid of any animal he meets in the woods. Karen Reczuch's illustrations of many culturally-relevant objects like beadwork designs and Mishomis' moccasins make this book something to be treasured." —Aboriginal Voices

"From the first words of Morning on the Lake, it's evident the author has an abundance of love and respect for the force of nature in all its magnificence. And, as we follow the young native protagonist and his grandfather, the call of the wild sounds ever more clear. Early one morning, the boy and his grandfather set off in their canoe and are rewarded with a rare glimpse of a family of loons. Later that day, they climb to the top of a hill and have an encounter with a bald eagle. And in the still night, the boy comes face to face with a pack of wolves. In this boy's traditional world, nature is given very human qualities which can set the heart a-thumping as well as soothe the spirit. Karen Reczuch's tranquil illustrations lovingly portray the relationship between man and his surroundings." —Children's Book News

In 2005, SkySisters was the award recipient for First Nation Communities Read.

B.C. Science Supplementary Resource: Gr.3-Earth and Life Science

Two Ojibway sisters set off across the frozen north country to see the SkySpirits midnight dance. It isn't easy for the younger sister to be silent, but gradually she begins to treasure the stillness and the wonderful experiences it brings. After an exhilarating walk and patient waiting, the girls are rewarded by the arrival of the SkySpirits - the Northern Lights - dancing and shimmering in the night sky. This powerful story, with its stunning illustrations, captures the chill of a northern night, the warmth of the family circle and the radiance of a child's wonder.

Johnston focuses on a young member of the tribe and his development through participation in the many rituals so important to the Ojibway way of life, from the Naming Ceremony and the Vision Quest to the War Path, and from the Marriage Ceremony to the Ritual of the Dead.

A mystical novel reflecting a positive view of native life and philosophy, it's about a three-year-old who was taken from his home on an Ojibway reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. Join him as he travels back to the reserve and discovers his sense of place and of self.

When Garnet Raven was three years old, he was taken from his home on an Ojibway Indian reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. Having reached his mid-teens, he escapes at the first available opportunity, only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city.

Having skirted the urban underbelly once too often by age 20, he finds himself thrown in jail. While there, he gets a surprise letter from his long-forgotten native family.

The sudden communication from his past spurs him to return to the reserve following his release from jail. Deciding to stay awhile, his life is changed completely as he comes to discover his sense of place, and of self. While on the reserve, Garnet is initiated into the ways of the Ojibway -- both ancient and modern -- by Keeper, a friend of his grandfather, and last fount of history about his people's ways.

By turns funny, poignant and mystical, Keeper 'n Me reflects a positive view of Native life and philosophy -- as well as casting fresh light on the redemptive power of one's community and traditions.

Educator InformationGrades 10-11 BC English First Peoples resource for the unit How Do We Define Ourselves?

Cowboy lore and First Nations mysticism in this affecting novel about the healing effects of family. In pursuit of a world-champion title, Joe Willie Wolfchild suffers a horrific, career-ending accident while riding a temperamental bull named C-4. His supportive family, longtime rodeo people, whisk him back to their ranch to recuperate. Far from the laconic stereotype, this book is filled with his soaring descriptions of the desert landscape, action-packed rodeo scenes, and reverence for hearth and home which will strike a chord with readers.

Dream Wheels is a vital and unsparing novel from one of the most fascinating voices in Canadian writing.

Joe Willie Wolfchild is on the verge of becoming a World Champion rodeo cowboy when a legendary bull cripples him. At the same time, in the same city, Claire Hartley is brutally assaulted and her 14-year-old son, Aiden, is critically injured during a burglary. The young Ojibway-Sioux man, the black single mother and her mulatto son find their lives irrevocably changed.

Joe Willie, a rodeo cowboy since he was a child, smolders in angry silence over a deformed left arm and a limp that make it impossible for him to compete. Claire, a victim of numerous bad relationships, withdraws from men and swears a bitter celibacy. Aiden gains notoriety among his criminal peers and slips into a self-destructive spiral of drugs and violence.

Eager to find a place for her son to channel his explosive energies, Claire brings Aiden to a rodeo camp run by the Wolfchild family, where he is drawn to bull riding and proves to be a stunning natural. But Joe Willie refuses to have anything to do with the camp, remaining an aloof, mysterious presence to Claire and the boy.

Birch Wolfchild, Joe Willie’s father, sees the potential for Aiden to become a champion and for his son to heal himself, if they can move beyond anger to forge a partnership. Claire’s and Joe Willie’s wounds bring them together in a surprising romance, and beneath it all is Birch Wolfchild’s tale of the changing of the life of the Indian cowboy.

Dream Wheels is a story about change. Moving from the Wild West Shows of the late 1880s to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas to a lush valley in the mountains, it tells the story of a people’s journey, a family’s vision, a man’s reawakening, a woman’s recovery, and a boy’s emergence to manhood.

Reviews“Richard Wagamese is a born storyteller and Dream Wheels is his finest book yet. Cover to cover a ripping read.” —Louise Erdrich

In One Native Life, Wagamese looks back down the road he has travelled in reclaiming his identity and talks about the things he has learned as a human being, a man and an Ojibway in his fifty-two years. Whether he's writing about playing baseball, running away with the circus, attending a sacred bundle ceremony or meeting Pierre Trudeau, he tells these stories in a healing spirit. Through them, he celebrates the learning journey his life has been.

Free of rhetoric and anger despite the horrors he has faced, Wagamese’s prose resonates with a peace that has come from acceptance. Acceptance is an Aboriginal principle, and he has come to see that we are all neighbours here. One Native Life is his tribute to the people, the places and the events that have allowed him to stand in the sunshine and celebrate being alive.

Reviews"One Native Life contains sixty-five stories that are divided into four books: Ahki (Earth), Ishskwaday (Fire),Nibi (Water), andIshpiming (Universe). From this diverse selection emerge accounts not only of disappointment and racial discrimination but also of the transformative power of love and caring." - Sean Carleton, The British Columbia Quarterly

Educator InformationSuggested Grades: 9-12 ABPBC

Grades 10-12 BC English First Peoples Resource for units on First Peoples' Story and Place-Conscious Learning.

This is the story of an Ojibway boy, who, on hearing the call of a Loon, remembers a story of long ago. Mishomis comes to a peaceful, restful lake surrounded by tall, ancient trees. The place is tranquil because it is sacred, and the Loon is calling because it is time for Mishomis to pass on. Closing his eyes, Mishomis sees his life first as a young boy, then as a Chief, and now as an Elder. In a moment of silence, Moon Lake Loon Lake welcomes Mishomis's spirit.

Someday is a powerful new play by award-winning playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. The story in Someday, though told through fictional characters and full of Taylor''s distinctive wit and humour, is based on the real-life tragedies suffered by many Native Canadian families.

Anne Wabung's daughter was taken away by children's aid workers when the girl was only a toddler. It is Christmastime 35 years later, and Anne''s yearning to see her now-grown daughter is stronger than ever.

When the family is finally reunited, however, the dreams of neither women are fulfilled.

The setting for the play is a fictional Ojibway community, but could be any reserve in Canada, where thousands of Native children were removed from their families in what is known among Native people as the "scoop-up" of the 1950s and 1960s. Someday is an entertaining, humourous, and spirited play that packs an intense emotional wallop.

Before discovering native healing methods, Herb Nabigon could not imagine a life without alcohol. His powerful autobiography, The Hollow Tree, tells the story of his struggle to overcome addiction with the help of the spiritual teachings and brotherly love of his elders.

Nabigon had spent much of his life wrestling with self-destructive impulses, feelings of inferiority and resentment, and alcohol abuse when Eddie Bellerose, an Elder, introduced him to the ancient Cree teachings. With the help of healing methods drawn from the Four Sacred Directions, the refuge and revitalization offered by the sweat lodge, and native cultural practices such as the use of the pipe Nabigon was able to find sobriety.

The Hollow Tree is one person's testament to the power of indigenous culture to heal. Herb Nabigon's healing journey guided him to a life of kindness, honesty, courage, and humility.

A young Ojibway girl, struggling over the fact that her father has died, spends a summer in the bush with her grandmother and finds her own identity and voice.

Things have been hard for her family since her father's accidental death in a logging accident, and Ray has been unable to express her grief. In school, the green eyes she inherited from her father are unusual for a child from an Ojibway background in a northern Ontario town and get her noticed in ways she doesn't enjoy. At home, Ray believes that her mother, grieving herself and busy with Ray's younger brother and sister, no longer needs her. Ray becomes so withdrawn that at times she hardly speaks.

At the end of this beautiful and empowering story, which begins in 1978, the withdrawn green-eyed girl has found her voice and is not afraid to use it.

The Colour of Dried Bones is a collection of intertwined short stories. Together, they show the life of a young Ojibway woman as she struggles to find her place in society, within her relationships, and within her own body. In her exploration of different moments in her life, loves, friendships, hardships and motherhood, she also explores her relationships with her family, her people, and the people around her. Through observation and intense seeking, she breaks through her confusion and eventually, finds a voice that is her own-even if she does not yet recognize it. Ultimately, she discovers that she must look within herself to determine her outcome. That only by travelling homeward, to her roots at her reserve, can she find the path that leads to healing and rest.

Now that his Mishoomis, his grandfather, is gone, a young man remembers walking with him in the bush and listening to stories of the old days; he remembers being honored with an eagle feather at the powwow and not knowing what he had done to deserve this honor; he remembers his grandfather telling him that I had achieved a good deed from the first day he held me, as a baby, in his arms.

Through his grandfather's gentle teachings a young Ojibwe boy learns the values of life and the significance of the eagle feather.

Plains illustrations perfectly complement this deep little story and express the many layers of life's experiences.

A new collection of warm, wise and inspiring stories from the author of the bestselling One Native Life.

Since its publication in 2008, readers and reviewers have embraced Richard Wagamese's One Native Life. In quiet tones and luminous language,wrote the Winnipeg Free Press,Wagamese shares his hurts and joys, inviting readers to find the ways in which they are joined to him and to consider how they might be joined to others.

In this new book, Richard Wagamese again invites readers to accompany him on his travels. This time, his focus is on stories: how they shape us, how they empower us, how they change our lives. Ancient and contemporary, cultural and spiritual, funny and sad, the tales are grouped according to the four Ojibway storytelling principles: balance, harmony, knowledge and intuition.

Whether the topic is learning from his grade five teacher about Martin Luther King, gleaning understanding from a wolf track, lighting a fire for the first time without matches or finding the universe in an eagle feather, these stories exhibit the warmth, wisdom and generosity that made One Native Life so popular. As always, in these pages, the land serves as Wagamese' guide. And as always, he finds that true home means not only community but conversation good, straight-hearted talk about important things. We all need to tell our stories, he says. Every voice matters.

After helping his Mishoomis (Grandfather) save an orphaned Appaloosa colt from a bog, Jason takes a special interest in caring for it which he names Binesi or Thunderbird. At school, the bullies make fun of his affection for the funnylooking colt he hopes to race one day. They laugh and call him Racin Jason.With support from his Grandparents, Jason raises and trains Binesi. On the day of the big race, Jason and Binesi are ready. The teasing only makes Jason more determined than ever to win.

The lady slipper grows in the northern woods to mark the courage and strength of a small girl who lived there long ago - a girl who saved her people from a terrible disease by listening carefully to the whispering snow, the rumbling ice, and the dancing northern lights. Illustrated with paintings as graceful and delicate as the lady slipper itself, this unforgettable retelling shows how a child's lost slippers became one of nature's most lovely spring flowers.

Reviews"The Ojibwa tell a story of the moccasin flower, called lady slipper in English, a beautiful woodland blossom. First-time children's authors but longtime storytellers Lunge-Larsen and Preus use native sources and tell the sweet legend in a powerful way. The only one left whole when a devastating disease strikes her village, a girl sets out in deep winter to a neighboring village to get healing herbs to save the sick. She does not stay the night but starts back immediately and is caught in drifted snow. The snow whispers, "Be wise!" and she figures out, like the fox, how to free herself. But her fur-lined moccasins are left behind. She perseveres, with frozen and bleeding feet, to save her village. In the spring, when she returns to look for her moccasins, she finds instead a patch of small pink-and-white flowers shaped like the shoes. Clear, limpid colors enhance the decorative effect of the illustrations, whose lively line and use of pattern are reminiscent of beadwork. An authors' note and bibliography are included, and the authors particularly thank several Ojibwa language scholars for their assistance in the cadences of the language." - Booklist

From the accomplished memoirist and former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario comes a first novel of incredible heart and spirit for every Canadian.

The novel follows one girl, Martha, from the Cat Lake First Nation in Northern Ontario who is "stolen" from her family at the age of six and flown far away to residential school. She doesn't speak English but is punished for speaking her native language; most terrifying and bewildering, she is also "fed" to the school's attendant priest with an attraction to little girls.

Ten long years later, Martha finds her way home again, barely able to speak her native tongue. The memories of abuse at the residential school are so strong that she tries to drown her feelings in drink, and when she gives birth to her beloved son, Spider, he is taken away by Children's Aid to Toronto. In time, she has a baby girl, Raven, whom she decides to leave in the care of her mother while she braves the bewildering strangeness of the big city to find her son and bring him home.

Accompany Bobbie as she traces back the path of her life; from her Ojibwa roots to her rejection of her culture following the horrific abuse she endured during her childhood. She reflects on her life with sadness and humor recalling her tumultuous marriage and divorce, her life as a single parent, her battle with drugs and alcohol and the long road back to her traditions that took decades. God don’t Make No Junk will stay in the readers mind long after they finish reading it.

After ten-year-old Shawna moves to the West Coast with her mother, she misses everything from back home, including her school friends and the wide prairie skies of Manitoba. But most of all she misses Meshom (her grandfather). Delightfully, he arrives for her birthday and brings with him a surprising Little One with many important lessons to teach her.

Benjamin Chee Chee lived with anger and frustration for more than thirty years before he took his own life. An Ojibway artist who killed himself just as he was beginning to gain international recognition, Chee Chee is one of the thousands of aboriginal peoples in Canada who have committed suicide. Noted suicidologist and former RCMP officer Al Evans explores Chee Chee's wild, reckless, creative life to reveal how the clash between Native and White society has affected the suicide rate of young Native men and women, now among the highest in the world.

Having developed a large reputation for his many novels and nonfiction works, Richard Wagamese now appears before us as a poet, with a collection of stunning poems ranging over a broad landscape. He begins with an immersion in the immemorial landscape where “the ancient ones stand at your shoulder . . . making you a circle / containing everything.” These are Medicine teachings told from the experience of one who lived and still lives them. He describes his life on the road when he repeatedly ran away at an early age, and the beatings he received when the authorities tried “to beat the Indian right out of me.” Yet even in the most desperate situations, Wagamese shows us Canada as seen through the eyes and soul of a well-worn traveller, with his love of country, his love of people. Through it all, there are poems of love and music, the language sensuous and tender.

Read fascinating biographies of five heroic Canadians who have confronted danger or adversity in brave, resourceful and admirable ways. Included are Madeleine de Verchères, the young defender of the family fort in New France; Dr. Norman Bethune, the innovative surgeon of war-torn Spain and China; Sergeant Tommy Prince, whose daring exploits made him the most decorated Native Canadian soldier; Terry Fox and his inspirational Marathon of Hope for cancer research; and Roberta Bondar, the first female Canadian explorer of space.

Educator InformationRecommended Ages: 9-12.

This book is listed as containing Ojibway text content, as one of the five heroes in it is Tommy Prince, one of Canada's most decorated First Nations soldiers.

Francis Pegahmagabow was a remarkable aboriginal leader who served his nation in time of war and his people in time of peace, fighting all the way. In wartime he volunteered to be a warrior. In peacetime he had no option. His life reveals how uncaring Canada was about those to whom this land had always been home. A member of the Parry Island band (now Wasauksing First Nation) near Parry Sound, Ontario, Francis served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Belgium and France for almost the entire duration of the First World War, primarily as a scout and sniper. Through the horrific battles and inhuman conditions of trench warfare, his actions earned him three decorations for bravery, the most ever received by a Canadian aboriginal soldier. More recently, they inspired the central fictional character in Joseph Boyden's highly acclaimed novel Three Day Road. Physically and emotionally scarred by his wartime ordeals, Francis returned to Parry Island to try to rebuild his life. He had been treated as an equal in the army, but quickly discovered things hadn't changed back in Canada. As a status Indian his life was regulated by the infamous Indian Act and by local Indian agents who seemed bent on thwarting his every effort to improve his lot. So, Francis became a warrior once more, this time in the even longer battle to achieve the right of aboriginal Canadians to control their own destiny. In compiling this account of Francis Pegahmagabow's remarkable life, Adrian Hayes conducted extensive research in newspapers, archives, and military records, and spoke with members of Pegahmagabow's family and others who remembered the plight and the perseverance of this warrior. Originally published by Fox Meadow Creations, Pegahmagabow emerges again in this new Blue Butterfly Books edition, which incorporates additional material and updates some aspects of this unforgettable story, and the confusion that still surrounds it.

In a series of 21 paintings Shilling re-creates the faces of his Ojibway people – unforgettable for the suffering under the quietness, the courage, and dignity in the pain. He accompanies the art with a poetic text as compelling as the paintings – and writes of sleep and dreams and death, and of his use of color to fight off fear and darkness.

Annie Ashamock has written this stong, moving story about an Aboriginal woman’s life experiences. It is a story with a unifying theme that is shared throughout the different Aboriginal cultures of Turtle Island.

The traditional oral teachings and method of storytelling is recreated in the accompanying bonus CD-Rom that tells the same story in two different Aboriginal languages, Cree and Ojibwe. The reader can follow along and hear the story being told in the different languages.

Follow the road to becoming a dentist with Dennis Hewitt. He charts out his inspiration, challenges, college years and his first practical experience years, while helping people overcome their fear.

Perfect for high school guidance departments.

Series InformationThe Career Path Choices series showcases young Canadian First Nation, Métis and Inuit people engaged in interesting careers. The series highlights these peoples' hard work and determination and some interesting facts about their profession.

Waub isn’t always on Canada’s national news station. He is normally a reporter for CBC’s local supper-hour newscast in Winnipeg. Before he went to CBC, Waub wasn’t even a journalist. How did he get his start in journalism? Find out in Meet a Journalist and celebrate the life of an Ojibwe journalist!

Perfect for high school guidance departments.

Series InformationThe Career Path Choices series showcases young Canadian First Nation, Métis and Inuit people engaged in interesting careers. The series highlights these peoples' hard work and determination and some interesting facts about their profession.

The Story of the Seven Fires features a one hour DVD and a workbook. Both items include a brief introductory description of how this project came about. The DVD is a version of the Seven Fires story as told to a live audience. In the manner of Aboriginal oral storytelling, the way in which the story is told serves many purposes. It invites the listener’s attentiveness, stimulates the imagination, causes one to reflect upon realities and issues, and massages one’s understanding of self by challenging perceptions and reworking memories. The workbook is the story in another format. Either of these tools can be used to enhance the listener/learner’s self-directed learning process.

Woven together in the story of the Seven Fires are the hopes and voices of many Aboriginal teachers and community members, some of the spiritual and cultural teachings being revived by First Nations peoples, and pieces of collective history that influence present circumstances. The story uses metaphor, analogy, and archetype as mirrors to capture and reflect many concepts for the purpose of touching the minds, hearts, and spirits of a diverse audience. Symbols are used as tools to help the listener remember the ideas being shared. The examples were chosen so listeners can make their own links and connections between the past and present, the private and impersonal, the personal and political. The experience illustrates how storytelling can be part of a transformative learning process.

When Lucas Smoke learns the Ojibway art of carving from his grandfather, he proves to be a natural. He can literally make people come to life in wood. Then Lucas's growing reputation attracts a mysterious stranger, who offers him a large advance to carve a spirit mask. This mask is to represent the master, but Lucas must find its face in his dreams. As his dreams become more and more disturbing, he feels himself changing. And the mask takes control of his life. Then a chance encounter with an old woman introduces him to the identity of the master. He is an ancient sorcerer named Him Standing, a powerful and dark wizard. The more Lucas works on the mask, the closer Him Standing comes to emerging from the dream world to walk the earth again. What follows is a race against time and the forces of evil in this supernatural thriller.

Reviews"In an efficient yet engaging writing style, Wagamese portrays Lucas as a likeable hero with a distinct voice and perspective. Amy acts as a solid foil to Lucas, and the two develop each other in showing their vulnerable sides...The pace is snappy; events follow on each other's heels like dominoes at a rate sure to keep the reader hooked on the storyline. Recommended."— CM Magazine, February 2013

"Perfect for mature reluctant readers, ESL learners, or anyone who enjoys a good story."— VOYA, June 2013

"Wagamese dips into deep issues such as balance in the universe and the power of fear, and wraps them up into a mystical story that clips along and clocks in at 129 pages. An impressive feat. Also impressive is the voice he creates for Lucas; the young man’s internal dialogue feels genuine throughout."— The Coastal Spectator, June 2013

In Ojibwe (or Chippewa in the United States) culture a dream catcher is a hand-crafted willow hoop with woven netting that is decorated with sacred and personal items such as feathers and beads. The Native American tradition of making dream catchers--hoops hung by the Ojibwe on their children's cradleboards to "catch" bad dreams--is rich in history and tradition.

Although the exact genesis of this intriguing artifact is unknown, legend has it that a medicine woman forms a circle from a willow branch and, with sinew, borrows the pattern from a spider, weaves a web, and hangs it over the bed of a sick child who recovers by morning. In some versions dream catchers catch good dreams and let bad ones through, while others catch bad dreams and let good dreams through. This legend accompanies dream catchers offered for sale across North America and beyond.

These themes, among others, are carried throughout this book which explores the appropriation of dream catchers by Native Americans of different nations, as well as the New Age movement. Dream Catchers also discusses the blending of two religious philosophies whereby Native and Christian icons are mixed.

More than 40 color photographs feature contemporary dream catchers and artifacts with informative captions that identify and comment on the different patterns, their significance and history. Dream Catchers features the work of Native artist Nick Huard who creates dream catchers in his studio in Kahnawake outside of Montreal.

Through poems that move between the two languages, McIlwraith explores the beauty of the intersection between nêhiyawêwin, the PlainsCree language, and English, âkayâsîmowin. Written to honour her father's facility in nêhiyawêwin and her mother's beauty and generosity as an inheritor of Cree, Ojibwe, Scottish, and English, kiyâm articulates a powerful yearning for family,history, peace, and love.

Colin Hill is a young man faced with many choices. He is being pressured into a career choice that doesn’t feel right to him, and he is in love with someone who is not ready to fully return that love. Most difficult of all, Colin must choose to revisit his past – the painful past he has tried so hard to forget.

But young Bobby Peters is missing. Evil from the past overshadows the old cabin, and Colin fears they may already be too late.

On duty in the emergency room, third-year nursing student, Sarah Jones is saddened by the death of an intoxicated patient. However, when the stranger’s identity is revealed, Sarah’s sorrow turns to devastated shock. Overwhelmed by what she has learned, Sarah flees to the remote Ojibway community of Rabbit Lake, to seek solace from her childhood friend, Ojibway police officer, Coin Hill.

Journey with Sarah and Colin through Deep Waters – a moving story about choices, loss, betrayal and tragedy, and the redemptive power of God’s love.

Jenny Wilson, an investigative reporter, finds more than she bargained for: Jeff Peters, the man who had mysteriously disappeared from her life three years before; Missy, the child she thought was dead; and a story that could make headlines across the world.

But if Jenny publishes what she knows, Jeff may be sent to prison; Missy could lose her father; and Jenny will have betrayed her new friends. It is a choice that only she can make.

Jasmine marks the beginning of a new series by M. D. Meyer, one that chronicles the healing journey of seven young people in the fictional First Nations community of Rabbit Lake. The first step in the healing journey is to courageously “face the problem.”

Jasmine Peters is doing everything in her power to avoid talking about, or dealing with, what happened to her. But when the past interfaces with the future, Jasmine not only puts herself at risk but also endangers the life of newly commissioned RCMP constable, Andrew Martin.

Lewis is the second book in a series that chronicles the healing journey of seven young people in the fictional First Nations community of Rabbit Lake. The second step in the healing journey is to “tell our story” to a trustworthy friend or counselor.

Lewis Littledeer struggles alone as a single father, unable to understand why his wife, Starla, has left him again to sell her body and soul on the streets of Winnipeg as a sex trade worker. What is it that keeps driving her away from a loving husband and the care and support of her home community?

Joshua is the third book in the series “The Group” by award-winning author, M. D. Meyer. When Joshua’s abusive older brother shows up on his doorstep, Joshua’s first instinct is to send him away. But Bryan is dying of AIDS and is looking for someone to assume custody of his eight-year-old daughter, Cynarra. Joshua must choose to accept – or reject – them both.

Missy is the fourth book in the award-winning series that chronicles the healing journey of seven young people in the fictional Frist Nations community of Rabbit Lake. The fourth step in the healing journey is to “confront the abuser.”

Missy can see the damaging effects of Yvonne’s verbal abuse on Joshua, but is helpless to stop the vicious stabbing and hacking away at her husband’s self-worth. It is Joshua who must find the strength to confront the aunt whom he has cowered from all his life. But when verbal abuse escalates into attempted murder and kidnapping, Missy knows that somehow, some way, Yvonne’s reign of terror must end!

This is the life story of Sherry Lynne, who at age eleven, ran away from her abusive adoptive parents to fend for herself on the streets of Toronto. Things went from bad to worse as Sherry Lynne found herself caught in the webs of substance abuse and the sex trade. Throughout her life, Sherry Lynne asked the question: “Where was God?” Why had He allowed all these bad things to happen to her?

Starla is the fifth book in a series that chronicles the healing journey of seven young people in the fictional First Nations community of Rabbit Lake. The fifth step in the healing journey is to “leave room for God’s vengeance – and His mercy.”

Only days after she solemnly promised never to leave him again, Starla Littledeer once again abandons her husband, Lewis, and her baby daughter, Karissa. This time, Lewis and the community of Rabbit Lake, are not so willing to take her back, and they cannot so easily forgive Starla's infidelity.

A search down a wooded path for a well-hit baseball turns into an encounter between Pamela and a veteran soldier standing in front of a monument. The statue commemorates the heroism of Sgt. Tommy Prince, the most decorated Aboriginal soldier in Canada. Pamela is curious, and the veteran is happy to regale her with the story of the expert marksman and tracker, renowned for his daring and bravery in World War II and the Korean War.

Tales from Big Spirit is a unique six-book graphic novel series that delves into the stories of six great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teacher's use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

Ojibwa artist and author Ferguson Plain weaves another delightful story focussing on traditional Aboriginal values. Nokomis and I is an insightful story of a young boy's journey through nature with his grandmother Nokomis. As the boy and Nokomis walk, they discover a spider, Sespike, along their path. Nokomis stops to share the lesson of the spider's web, explaining how the Circle of Life is made up of humans, animals, plants, and stones delicately woven together. Each relies on their relationships to keep life in balance.

In the early 1930s, Oscar Wolf, a 13-year-old Native from the Chippewas of Rama Indian Reserve, sets fire to the business section of his village north of Toronto in a fit of misguided rage against white society, inadvertently killing his grandfather and a young maid. Tortured by guilt and fearful of divine retribution, Oscar sets out on a lifetime quest for redemption.

His journey takes him to California where he works as a fruit picker and prizefighter during the Great Depression, to the Second World War where he becomes a decorated soldier, to university where he excels as a student and athlete, and to the diplomatic service in the postwar era where he causes a stir at the United Nations in New York and in Colombia and Australia.

Beset by an all-too-human knack for making doubtful choices, Oscar discovers that peace of mind is indeed hard to find in this saga of mid-20th-century aboriginal life in Canada and abroad that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds and ages.

Emma wants to participate in her community’s annual ‘King’s Day’ celebration that is held every year on January 6th. She loves to see the gifts that are given and hear the stories people tell when they visit. Her mother, however, feels that Emma is too young.

When Emma’s grandmother hurts herself, Emma reluctantly agrees to help. In helping her grandmother prepare and serve her King’s Day meal, Emma discovers the meaning behind this special day. ‘King’s Day’ is about celebrating Christ’s birth and the Three Wise Kings who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts on this holy day. Emma learns that ‘King’s Day’ is not only about exchanging gifts, it’s also about helping family and friends by giving one's time.

Reviews"Deborah Delaronde uses her unique gift for writing and the insights of her Métis heart to gift us with this story of Emma. It is a heart-warming story that uncovers bit by bit how Emma realizes and integrates the meaning of King Day's into her young life. This book gives a wonderful insight into our Métis culture." - Joe McLellan, author of The Nanabosho Series

"Careful, spare sentences, paired with smartly detailed, almost cinematic drawings, gentle us through Emma's experience of the Kings' Day, the Métis traditional celebration of The Epiphany. The young woman's growing understanding --her own epiphany-- of the customs of give and take between the adults of her family and community, and her own gifting, make this a lovely story about a sweet step in a girl's growing up." - Daniel David Moses, author of A Small Essay on the Largeness of Light and Other Poems

The Midewiwin is the traditional religious belief system central to the world view of Ojibwa in Canada and the US. It is a highly complex and rich series of sacred teachings and narratives whose preservation enabled the Ojibwa to withstand severe challenges to their entire social fabric throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It remains an important living and spiritual tradition for many Aboriginal people today.

The rituals of the Midewiwin were observed by many 19th century Euro-Americans, most of whom approached these ceremonies with hostility and suspicion. As a result, although there were many accounts of the Midewiwin published in the 19th century, they were often riddled with misinterpretations and inaccuracies.

Historian Michael Angel compares the early texts written about the Midewiwin, and identifies major, common misconceptions in these accounts. In his explanation of the historical role played by the Midewiwin, he provides alternative viewpoints and explanations of the significance of the ceremonies, while respecting the sacred and symbolic nature of the Midewiwin rituals, songs, and scrolls.

Verna J. Kirkness grew up on the Fisher River Indian reserve in Manitoba. Her childhood dream to be a teacher set her on a lifelong journey in education as a teacher, counsellor, consultant, and professor.

As the first cross-cultural consultant for the Manitoba Department of Education Curriculum Branch she made Cree and Ojibway the languages of instruction in several Manitoba schools. In the early 1970s she became the first Education Director for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) and then Education Director for the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations). She played a pivotal role in developing the education sections of Wahbung: Our Tomorrows, which transformed Manitoba education, and the landmark 1972 national policy of Indian Control of Indian Education. These two major works have shaped First Nations education in Canada for more than 40 years.

In the 1980s she became an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia where she was appointed Director of the Native Teacher Education Program, founded the Ts’‘Kel Graduate Program, and was a driving force behind the creation of the First Nations House of Learning. Honoured by community and country, Kirkness is a visionary who has inspired, and been inspired by, generations of students.

Like a long conversation between friends, Creating Space reveals the challenges and misgivings, the burning questions, the successes and failures that have shaped the life of this extraordinary woman and the history of Aboriginal education in Canada.

By the celebrated author of Canada Reads Finalist Indian Horse, a stunning new novel that has all the timeless qualities of a classic, as it tells the universal story of a father/son struggle in a fresh, utterly memorable way, set in dramatic landscape of the BC Interior. For male and female readers equally, for readers of Joseph Boyden, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas King, Russell Banks and general literary.

Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with the man. The rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner.

What ensues is a journey through the rugged and beautiful backcountry, and a journey into the past, as the two men push forward to Eldon's end. From a poverty-stricken childhood, to the Korean War, and later the derelict houses of mill towns, Eldon relates both the desolate moments of his life and a time of redemption and love and in doing so offers Frank a history he has never known, the father he has never had, and a connection to himself he never expected.

A novel about love, friendship, courage, and the idea that the land has within it powers of healing, Medicine Walk reveals the ultimate goodness of its characters and offers a deeply moving and redemptive conclusion.

Wagamese's writing soars and his insight and compassion are matched by his gift of communicating these to the reader.

Reviews"A masterpiece, a work of art that explores human interconnectedness with a level of artistry so superb that the personal becomes eternal."— National Post

"Wagamese balances the novel's spiritual and political subtexts with sly humour, sharp, believable dialogue and superb storytelling skills. Medicine Walk is a major accomplishment from an author who has become one of Canada's best novelists."—Toronto Star

This is very much a novel about the role of stories in our lives, those we tell ourselves about ourselves and those we agree to live by.... Medicine Walk is also testament to the redemptive power of love and compassion."—The Globe and Mail

Educator InformationGrades 10-12 BC English First Peoples resource for units on Childhood, Place-Conscious Learning, and Family.

When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man who'd raised him. The Reason You Walk spans the year 2012, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school. An intriguing doubleness marks The Reason You Walk, a reference to an Anishinaabe ceremonial song. Born to an Anishinaabe father and a non-native mother, he has a foot in both cultures. He is a Sundancer, an academic, a former rapper, a hereditary chief, and an urban activist. His father, Tobasonakwut, was both a beloved traditional chief and a respected elected leader who engaged directly with Ottawa. Internally divided, his father embraced both traditional native religion and Catholicism, the religion that was inculcated into him at the residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, Kinew's father invited the Roman Catholic bishop of Winnipeg to a Sundance ceremony in which he adopted him as his brother. Kinew writes affectingly of his own struggles in his twenties to find the right path, eventually giving up a self-destructive lifestyle to passionately pursue music and martial arts. From his unique vantage point, he offers an inside view of what it means to be an educated aboriginal living in a country that is just beginning to wake up to its aboriginal history and living presence. Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.

My life as a Kane was lit in the Indigos, Aquamarines and Magentas of a home built on quiet faith and prayer. But Johnny changed all that. Where I had stood transfixed by the gloss on the surface of living, he called me forward from the pages of the books, away from the blinders that faith can surreptitiously place upon your eyes and out into a world populated by those who live their lives in the shadow of necessary fictions.

When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

Reviews"Residential and boarding school stories are hard to read, but they're vitally important... books like I Am Not a Number should be taught in schools in Canada, and the U.S., too."— Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature

"It’s important to teach children about true Canadian history, but it’s not easy to talk about it in a way that children will understand. I Am Not a Number is perfect to get the conversation about residential schools started with your children. It opens the door for them to ask questions about the subject and the story is relatable in a way they can follow."— Residential School Magazine

"[A] powerful teaching tool that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to. It is written in simple language and told in a way that will stimulate conversations about residential schools and the traumatic effects they have had on generations of First Nation families and communities. ... beautifully illustrated by Gillian Newland. She captures the somber mood of the school, the anguish of the children, the severity of the nuns and the desperation of the family. Students can easily empathize with Irene and her brothers as well as their parents as they try to imagine how they would feel or act in a similar situation." — Alberta Native News, December 2016

"Endless cross-curricular connections can be made using this story. But the most powerful aspect of this book is that it will open a dialogue, one that Justice Murray Sinclair spoke of as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a dialogue that needs to take place for reconciliation to happen." — ETFO Voice

The acclaimed author of The Orenda gives us a powerful and poignant look into the last moments of Charlie Wenjack, a residential school runaway trying to find his way home.

An Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School. Too late, he realizes just how far away home is. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from.

Educator InformationRecommended English First Peoples Resource for Grades 10-11.

Joseph Boyden's works are not necessarily considered authentic First Peoples resources. Review the English First Peoples Grades 10-12 FNESC publication for more information and resources, or search online for information on this author.

"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on--and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually, I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end." - Richard Wagamese, Embers

In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush--sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality--concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.

Naamiwan’s Drum follows the story of a famous Ojibwe medicine man, his gifted grandson, and remarkable water drum. This drum, and forty other artefacts, were given away by a Canadian museum to an American Anishinaabe group that had no family or community connections to the collection. Many years passed before the drum was returned to the family and only of the artefacts were ever returned to the museum.

Maureen Matthews takes us through this astonishing set of events from multiple perspectives, exploring community and museum viewpoints, visiting the ceremonial group leader in Wisconsin, and finally looking back from the point of view of the drum. The book contains a powerful Anishinaabe interpretive perspective on repatriation and on anthropology itself. Containing fourteen beautiful colour illustrations, Naamiwan’s Drum is a compelling account of repatriation as well as a cautionary tale for museum professionals.

Language and cultural retention is a community effort, and Ojibwe Teachings, complied by Mary Anne Maytwayashing, is a resource to help in that effort. If you are new to the language, are in the process of learning, or speak Ojibwe fluently, this booklet is for you. It is through sharing what we know that future generations will have what they need to keep our First Nations languages alive.

This delightful story with a Christmas theme is also a counting lesson for young learners of Ojibwe. Naanan Miskogwanawe-Miigiwewininiwag/Five Santas are hard at work getting ready for Christmas when one-by-one they get tired and fall asleep. Written by Stella Young; translated into Ojibwe by Judy Doolittle, Wanda Barker and Darcy Malcolm; and illustrated by Rosalyn Boucha, this charming softcover is the perfect addition to any child’s library.

In 2018-2019, The Water Walker was an award recipient for First Nation Communities Read.

The story of a determined Ojibwe Grandmother (Nokomis) Josephine Mandamin and her great love for Nibi (water). Nokomis walks to raise awareness of our need to protect Nibi for future generations, and for all life on the planet. She, along with other women, men, and youth, have walked around all the Great Lakes from the four salt waters, or oceans, to Lake Superior. The walks are full of challenges, and by her example Josephine invites us all to take up our responsibility to protect our water, the giver of life, and to protect our planet for all generations.

Awards- 2018-2019 First Nation Communities Read

Reviews"An important topic is treated with grace, love, and a smidgen of humor in this delightful, necessary book." —Kirkus Reviews

"... a worthwhile addition to classroom and public libraries and a resource for discussions about First Nations and ecology." — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

"... like so many titles about Indigenous topics finally earning shelf space in Canadian libraries and bookshops, The Water Walker has just as much to teach parents as the children... Joanne Robertson succeeds in answering with her words and her art the same question that Nokomis Josephine answered with her footsteps: 'What are you going to do about it?'" — Anishinabek News

"The Water Walker is a wonderful book about conservation, environmentalism, and preservation, written in a way that even the youngest audience can understand why Nibi is important and why we should protect Nibi.... The book has the potential to be a highly interactive book around which science lesson plans could be formed. Students can discuss how they are protecting Nibi, they can write letters to Nokomis, and there can be discussion around the ways they can create change in the world, just as Nokomis did." — Resource Links

In 2018-2019, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City was an award recipient for First Nation Communities Read.

In 1966, twelve-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks after running away from residential school. An inquest was called and four recommendations were made to prevent another tragedy. None of those recommendations were applied.

More than a quarter of a century later, from 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave home and live in a foreign and unwelcoming city. Five were found dead in the rivers surrounding Lake Superior, below a sacred Indigenous site. Jordan Wabasse, a gentle boy and star hockey player, disappeared into the minus twenty degrees Celsius night. The body of celebrated artist Norval Morrisseau’s grandson, Kyle, was pulled from a river, as was Curran Strang’s. Robyn Harper died in her boarding-house hallway and Paul Panacheese inexplicably collapsed on his kitchen floor. Reggie Bushie’s death finally prompted an inquest, seven years after the discovery of Jethro Anderson, the first boy whose body was found in the water.

Using a sweeping narrative focusing on the lives of the students, award-winning investigative journalist Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this small northern city that has come to manifest Canada’s long struggle with human rights violations against Indigenous communities.

A portion of each sale of Seven Fallen Feathers will go to the Dennis Franklin Cromarty Memorial Fund, set up in 1994 to financially assist Nishnawbe Aski Nation students’ studies in Thunder Bay and at post-secondary institutions.

Reviews“Talaga has written Canada’s J’Accuse, an open letter to the rest of us about the many ways we contribute — through act or inaction — to suicides and damaged existences in Canada’s Indigenous communities. Tanya Talaga’s account of teen lives and deaths in and near Thunder Bay is detailed, balanced and heart-rending. Talaga describes gaps in the system large enough for beloved children and adults to fall through, endemic indifference, casual racism and a persistent lack of resources. It is impossible to read this book and come away unchanged.” — RBC Taylor Prize Jury Citation

“In Seven Fallen Feathers, Tanya Talaga delves into the lives of seven Indigenous students who died while attending high school in Thunder Bay over the first eleven years of this century. With a narrative voice encompassing lyrical creation myth, razor-sharp reporting, and a searing critique of Canada’s ongoing colonial legacy, Talaga binds these tragedies — and the ambivalent response from police and government — into a compelling tapestry. This vivid, wrenching book shatters the air of abstraction that so often permeates news of the injustices Indigenous communities face every day. It is impossible to read Seven Fallen Feathers and not care about the lives lost, the families thrust into purgatory, while the rest of society looks away.” — Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Jury Citation

“[A]n urgent and unshakable portrait of the horrors faced by Indigenous teens going to school in Thunder Bay, Ontario, far from their homes and families. . . . Talaga’s incisive research and breathtaking storytelling could bring this community one step closer to the healing it deserves.” — Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

“Seven Fallen Feathers may prove to be the most important book published in Canada in 2017. Tanya Talaga offers well-researched, difficult truths that expose the systemic racism, poverty, and powerlessness that contribute to the ongoing issues facing Indigenous youth, their families, and their communities. It is a call to action that deeply honours the lives of the seven young people; our entire nation should feel their loss profoundly.” — Patti LaBoucane-Benson, author of The Outside Circle

“[W]here Seven Fallen Feathers truly shines is in Talaga’s intimate retellings of what families experience when a loved one goes missing, from filing a missing-persons report with police, to the long and brutal investigation process, to the final visit in the coroner’s office. It’s a heartbreaking portrait of an indifferent and often callous system . . . Seven Fallen Feathers is a must-read for all Canadians. It shows us where we came from, where we’re at, and what we need to do to make the country a better place for us all.” — The Walrus

Educator InformationThe Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools list recommends this resource for Grade 12 English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Canoe Kids Vol. 1 The Ojibwe of Great Spirit Island is the first issue of a 24 edition series designed as family books for kids all ages. This eight-year project will see the Canoe Kids Team embed with 24 Peoples. The mandate for the full-colour book (161 full colour high res photographs) is Exploring Indigenous Cultures through Authentic Indigenous Voices. The publication balances culture, equity and the environment in a beautiful mix that reminds the reader of the pictorial quality of National Geographic with a more in depth editorial content.

This first issue (in a series of 24) focuses on the Ojibwe People of Great Spirit Island (Manitoulin Island). In 129 pages the reader is introduced to the Ojibwe People who kindly assisted the Canoe Kids staff by allowing access to their traditional territory. Canoe Kids acknowledges the generosity of the Council of Aundeck Omni Kanning and the People of the six Manitoulin communities.

Educator InformationEach edition follows a common theme and features:

1: Compelling and beautiful pictorials that draw you into the stories and place of the featured community 2: The story of the vessel used by the featured Peoples 3: Art and Food 4: A Kids Zone 5: Resources for kids, parents and educators 6: Stories by and of the featured Peoples in each edition 7: Extraordinary pictures of the lives, land and waters of the featured Peoples

The materials are equal parts cultural and environmental. The latter is a natural offshoot of the former as Indigenous cultures are wrapped around and through the lands and water and sky both spiritually and from a harvesting and gathering perspective. Indigenous Peoples have long been the caretakers of Mother Earth and we can all learn from these experts whose message is perhaps more relevant today than ever.

Indigenous communities have always included the little ones in their circles and talk and teach to them in the same way they talk and teach to young adults and adults. Canoe Kids decided to follow that inclusive way of life for the layout of each book. Rather than create editions for different age groups, Canoe Kids decided to have one book for all ages.

CANOE KIDS is an ideal ongoing resource for teachers and is well received in all libraries. Articles are organized and developed so that there are materials for every age group, grade level, subject and interest.

K through 3 use Canoe Kids to read beautiful and ancient stories. There is beautiful original art to explore and a Kids Zone with puzzles, word searches, colouring, cutouts and more. Mid grades use the materials to study the culture, food and wildlife of the featured cultures. Grades 8 through 12 use stories that are more in depth from Dr. David Suzuki about the environment and there are discussion articles about living well and properly with Mother Nature as well as articles about the history and geography of the featured People.

Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.

Awards

2013 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Literature

2013 First Nation Communities Read Award

Reviews"Richard Wagamese is a master storyteller, who blends the throb of life with spiritual links to the land, hard work, and culture to find success, his words take you into the soul of Indian Horse, to experience his pain, his growing resentments, his depression, and his fear which has to be faced if he is to regain the joy of life. This book is meant for youth, adults, and elders, to be shared, to be lived, and to be treasured for the clear message of hope and the need to go the distance." — Wawatay News

“…The hockey chapters are compelling; they evoke Sherman Alexie’s fiction that examines contemporary life on American Indian reservations through the lens of basketball. But it is as a story of reconciliation that this novel reveals Wagamese’s masterful subtly…In a single image, Wagamese complicates in blinding ways the entire narrative; in a single page, Indian Horse deepens from an enjoyable read to a gripping critique of Canada.” — Kyle Carsten Wyatt, The Walrus, 2012

Educator InformationGrades 10-12 BC English First Peoples resource for units on Lost People, Reconciliation, and Place-Conscious Learning.

Additional Information232 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

This special edition of Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse has been released to coincide with the release of the film Indian Horse in the spring of 2018.

The final novel from Richard Wagamese, the bestselling and beloved author of Indian Horse and Medicine Walk, centres on an abused woman on the run who finds refuge on a farm owned by an Indigenous man with wounds of his own. A profoundly moving novel about the redemptive power of love, mercy, and compassion--and the land's ability to heal us.

Frank Starlight has long settled into a quiet life working his remote farm, but his contemplative existence comes to an abrupt end with the arrival of Emmy, who has committed a desperate act so she and her child can escape a harrowing life of violence. Starlight takes in Emmy and her daughter to help them get back on their feet, and this accidental family eventually grows into a real one. But Emmy's abusive ex isn't content to just let her go. He wants revenge and is determined to hunt her down.

Starlight was unfinished at the time of Richard Wagamese's death, yet every page radiates with his masterful storytelling, intense humanism, and insights that are as hard-earned as they are beautiful. With astonishing scenes set in the rugged backcountry of the B.C. Interior, and characters whose scars cut deep even as their journey toward healing and forgiveness lifts us, Starlight is a last gift to readers from a writer who believed in the power of stories to save us.

It's never too early to start teaching children their First Nations language, and Anishinaabe ABC Mazina'igan is a great tool to assist with learning.

This book is the second in a series by Language Facilitator, Wanda Barker. It is a great tool to assist with learning the Ojibwe language. Anishinaabe ABC Mazina’igan is filled with beautiful illustrations, Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe sentences and their English translations. The images can serve as a starting point for discussion of the cultural relevancy of the sentences associated with each letter.

This book can be used by students, parents and teachers, young and old. It is written in the double vowel writing system and is intended to show the sequence of the Ojibwe alphabet. The images can serve as a starting point for discussion of the cultural relevancy of the sentences associated with each letter.

Educator InformationThis book is written in the Ojibwe language with a glossary at the back in Ojibwe and English. It is useful for anyone wanting to learn the Ojibwe language.

It’s never too early to start teaching children their First Nations language, and Anishinaabemowin Alphabet is the perfect place to begin. This book is filled with beautifully shaded illustrations, Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe words and their English translations, and it can be used by students, parents and teachers young and old. It is written in the double vowel writing system and is intended to show the sequence of the Ojibwe alphabet. The images can serve as a starting point for discussion of the cultural relevancy of the word associated with each letter.

Educator InformationThis book is written in the Ojibwe language. An English translation for each word is provided at the back of the book.

An uproariously funny and sharply inquisitive new play from one of Canada’s leading Indigenous playwrights, Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion explores the possibility of reconciliation between Peoples and urgently questions past and contemporary forms of Canadian colonialism. Taylor’s twenty-seventh play, Sir John A’s characters include Canada’s infamous first Prime Minister, red-nosed and pompous, full of patriarchal contempt for those “strange and perplexing Indians,” and his contemporary accusers: two Ojibway men and a soul-searching white woman.

Bobby Rabbit, Sir John A’s irked, Anishinaabe main character, in a fit of anger and revenge, convinces his friend Hugh to accompany him on a “sojourn of justice”: to dig up Sir John A. Macdonald’s bones and hold them for ransom. Decades before, a medicine pouch belonging to Bobby’s grandfather was taken away by the staff of the residential school where he was detained. The precious object was sent to a British Museum exhibition room for conservation – and now Bobby wants it repatriated. Along the way the pair pick up Anya, a young, bright, and opinionated woman fleeing a bad breakup, with conflicting ideas about Sir John A’s place in Canadian history. Not to be left out of the argument, Canada’s first Prime Minister, broadcasting live from nineteenth-century Ottawa, shows up with opinions of his own.

Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion is a powerful satire, a creative debate about the past violences of colonial racism and the as yet untested potentiality of restoring harmony between Peoples in Canada. A contemporary classic by Taylor!

Otter’s Journey employs the Anishinaabe tradition of storytelling to explore how Indigenous language revitalization can inform the emerging field of Indigenous legal revitalization. Indigenous languages and laws need bodies to live in. Learning an endangered language and a suppressed legal system are similar experiences. When we bring language back to life, it becomes a medium for developing human relationships. Likewise, when laws are written on people’s hearts, true revitalization has occurred.

Storytelling has the capacity to address feelings and demonstrate themes – to illuminate beyond argument and theoretical exposition. In Otter’s Journey, Lindsay Keegitah Borrows follows Otter, a dodem (clan) relation from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, on a journey across Anishinaabe, Inuit, Māori, Coast Salish, and Abenaki territories, through a narrative of Indigenous resurgence. While Otter’s Journey is guided by a literal truth, it also splices and recombines real-world events and characters.

Through her engaging protagonist, Borrows reveals that the processes, philosophies, and practices flowing from Indigenous languages and laws can emerge from under the layers of colonial laws, policies, and languages to become guiding principles in people’s contemporary lives. We need the best of all people’s teachings to lead us into the future.

Students and scholars in a wide range of subfields within Indigenous studies will find this book of considerable appeal, as will scholars and students of law, literature, education, and language studies, and those with an interest in Indigenous methodologies.

Reviews"Otter’s Journey holds the potential to change the way people think about and, in turn, talk about Indigenous laws and Indigenous language acquisition and reacquisition ... The elemental way in which legal storytelling is embedded in the text makes Indigenous laws and language normative, not as things to be justified or even accommodated. Eloquent, poetic, and lyrical, this book marks a rare and even generational shift in the dialogue by and about Indigenous peoples." - Tracey Lindberg, author of Birdie, and professor of law and University Research Chair in Indigenous Laws, Legal Orders and Traditions at the University of Ottawa

"Otter's Journey offers a vibrant account of the possibilities and importance of Indigenous language revitalization. Weaving oral narrative, prose fiction, and autobiography, Lindsay Borrows models a scholarly practice grounded in family, community, and storytelling. This is an important academic contribution – and also a new work of Indigenous literature by an emerging writer of considerable skill." - Keavy Martin, author of Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature, and associate professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta

The Drum Story book and movie were created so people could hear and see the storyteller tell the story. This book and DVD combination also features the Ojibwe language alongside English. This beautiful and ancient story has been passed down through many generations. The story tells of a young girl given the gift of the first drum, and how she used that drum to bring peace to her people. Told in the traditional oral style, the teachings of the story are all about respect for one another and how to live well and properly with Mother Earth.

This hardcover book is richly illustrated (60 pictures and paintings) with 12 originally commissioned original artworks. The DVD is included in a sleeve on the inside back cover. The combination of reading and hearing the story told in the ages-old traditional method is extraordinary. The DVD also features traditional drumming and singing.

Educator InformationThe Drum Story book with story-telling DVD includes English and Ojibwe language translation - selectable on DVD with opposing subtitle and teacher/educational aids in PDF format included on the DVD, printable as a teacher resource.

Surrounded by Canada’s densest concentration of chemical manufacturing plants, members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation express concern about a declining male birth rate and high incidences of miscarriage, asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular illness. Everyday Exposure uncovers the systemic injustices they face as they fight for environmental justice. Exploring the problems that conflicting levels of jurisdiction pose for the creation of effective policy, analyzing clashes between Indigenous and scientific knowledge, and documenting the experiences of Aamjiwnaang residents as they navigate their toxic environment, this book argues that social and political change requires a transformative “sensing policy” approach, one that takes the voices of Indigenous citizens seriously.

Educator InformationThis book would be useful for courses in Environmental Studies, Science, Social Justice, and Social Studies.

Francis Pegahmagabow (1889–1952), a member of the Ojibwe nation, was born in Shawanaga, Ontario. Enlisting at the onset of the First World War, he became the most decorated Canadian Indigenous soldier for bravery and the most accomplished sniper in North American military history. After the war, Pegahmagabow settled in Wasauksing, Ontario. He served his community as both chief and councillor and belonged to the Brotherhood of Canadian Indians, an early national Indigenous political organization. Francis proudly served a term as Supreme Chief of the National Indian Government, retiring from office in 1950.

Francis Pegahmagabow’s stories describe many parts of his life and are characterized by classic Ojibwe narrative. They reveal aspects of Francis’s Anishinaabe life and worldview. Interceding chapters by Brian McInnes provide valuable cultural, spiritual, linguistic, and historic insights that give a greater context and application for Francis’s words and world. Presented in their original Ojibwe as well as in English translation, the stories also reveal a rich and evocative relationship to the lands and waters of Georgian Bay.

In Sounding Thunder, Brian McInnes provides new perspective on Pegahmagabow and his experience through a unique synthesis of Ojibwe oral history, historical record, and Pegahmagabow family stories.

Awards

Fred Landon Award, Ontario Historical Society (2018)

American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (2017)

Reviews“Debwemigad Nimkiig gaye Aadizookanag zhawenimaawaad. Brian McInnes has clearly been blessed by the Thunders and Great Storytellers. With Sounding Thunder he has achieved the perfect balance of personal memoir and scholarly inquiry. He shares with readers the stories that have connected one generation to another and in these cycles we find the truth about living. Dibaajimowinan omaada’oozhinang mii igo aanikoobijige.” – Margaret Ann Noodin, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Wisconsin

“This uniquely intimate portrait illuminates Francis’s commitment to live in a way that reflected the spiritual values of sharing and respect for life, despite his military record of 378 enemy kills for which he became renowned.” – Allyson Stevenson, University of Guelph, Canadian Journal of History

“McInnes’ Sounding Thunder brings complexity and nuance to the story (or stories) of Francis Pegahmagabow’s life. Past authors have portrayed Pegahmagabow alternatively as a warrior, a veteran, and/or a political activist. Certainly, these depictions capture snapshots of his character. But McInnes goes much further, adding breadth and depth to the sketch of the Nishnaabe man from Georgian Bay. He has produced a high-quality piece of historical research that tells an important story of Indigenous peoples as human beings with challenges that exist both within and without the constraints of colonialism.” – Eric Story, Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies

“Sounding Thunder is invaluable for those working in biographical, historical, Indigenous, military and political studies and the general reader. McInnes skillfully contextualizes his subject as one of Canada’s greatest war heroes as well as a member of his family, community, and Anishinaabe people.” – Brock Pitawanakwat, Assistant Professor, Department of Indigenous Studies, University of Sudbury

“Brian McInnes’ book is both elegant and masterful in its weaving of language, spirituality, storytelling, family, community, and physical place on the lands and waters of Georgian Bay as he presents the world and life of his great-grandfather, Francis Pegahmagabow. McInnes’ presentation of family stories in both Ojibwe and English, and his placement of them within their historical and geographical context, underlines Waubgeshig Rice’s claim in his foreword to Sounding Thunder that the book will remain ‘a vital resource for generations to come.’” – Jurors, Fred Landon Award, Ontario Historical Society

Educator InformationThis book would be useful for social studies and history courses for students in grades 11 and 12 or at a college/university level.

All Creation Represented is a child’s guide to the Medicine Wheel. Told from an authentic perspective of an Anishinaabe / Ojibwe knowledge holder, Joyce Perreault skillfully weaves together traditional teachings with modern educational goals, making this book an excellent resource for children of all ages.

The Medicine Wheel is a foundation of teaching and learning that shows how different parts of life are connected and balanced. Many generations of Indigenous cultures have understood the world through Medicine Wheel teachings. The Medicine Wheel offers holistic and relational ways of understanding the self, the family, the community, the natural and spiritual world. The book introduces the concept of a Medicine Wheel, highlighting the significance of the associated ancestral teachings as it discusses various aspects of human well-being, the physical world, and Indigenous culture. This book is designed as an education resource and embodies First Peoples Principles of Learning.

Learn the Ojibwe words that are represented by various aspects of the Medicine Wheel with a glossary at the back of the book, and explore a way of looking at the world that is holistic, sacred, and powerful. All Creation Represented will help readers consider the wisdom and knowledge of the First Peoples who used the Medicine Wheel to teach about and understand the world around them.

Educator InformationThis book is designed as an education resource and embodies First Peoples Principles of Learning.

It’s breakfast time and Donovan knows exactly what he wants this morning! Not eggs, not pancakes, not cereal. No, what he wants is BEAR, just like his grandfather used to eat for breakfast!

So Donovan sets off to bag a bear of his own, going on an adventurous hunt through the woods, where he stalks and is stalked by an ant, a squirrel, and a dog — but they are not bears, so he shoos them away!

When Donovan finally meets a real, big and growling bear, he quickly learns that sometimes breakfast tastes best when it doesn’t have any teeth!

This story was inspired by Donovan, a first-grader in La Loche, Saskatchewan, a Chippewan community in northern Saskatchewan that Robert Munsch visited in January, 1990. When Robert asked what the kids liked to eat, Donovan said that he liked to eat BEAR!

Copper Thunderbird is a play on canvases based on the life of Norval Morrisseau. Inside the power-lines which Morrisseau boldly defined in his art were the colours he experienced between his Ojibwa cosmology, his life on the street, and his spiritual and philosophical transformations to become the Father of Contemporary Native Art and a Grand Shaman. Appearing simultaneously in this multi-layered drama as a small boy, a young warrior and an old man, Morrisseau confronts his many selves over the Faustian destiny he encountered during his vision quest—a momentary terror that led to a life wracked by both triumph and ordeal, drawing his vibrant colours, both luminous and dark, from the life-force within him.

Norval Morrisseau is notorious for the life he has led, the company he has kept, the wives, lovers, parasitic drinking buddies and abusive family members he has had and passed through as if they were merely insubstantial phantoms. The paintings he has sold to buy another bottle of alcohol, to get through another brutal day, hang in galleries around the world, a phenomenon Morrisseau himself simply took for granted. Framed variously with the identities of Indian, Artist and Shaman, Copper Thunderbird interrogates both the stereotypes and the politically correct judgments that have manufactured Morrisseau’s public personae, creating a power-figure that transcends culture and morality, earth and water, fire and air.

For young readers, the collected wisdom and traditions of Ojibway elders.

The Ojibway is one of the largest groups of Native Americans, belonging to the Anishinabe people of what is today the northern United States and Canada. The Mishomis Book documents the history, traditions, and culture of the Ojibway people through stories and myths passed down through generations. Written by Ojibway educator and spiritual leader Edward Benton-Banai, and first published in 1988, The Mishomis Book draws from the traditional teachings of tribal elders to instruct young readers about Ojibway creation stories and legends, the origin and importance of the Ojibway family structure and clan system, the Midewiwin religion, the construction and use of the water drum and sweat lodge, and modern Ojibway history.

Written for readers from all cultures -but especially for Ojibway and Native youth- The Mishomis Book provides an introduction to Ojibway culture and an understanding of the sacred Midewiwin teachings, aiming to protect this knowledge by instilling its importance in a new generation. Encouraging the preservation of a way of life that is centered on respect for all living things, these vibrant stories about life, self, community, and relationship to nature are just as relevant to the modern reader as they were hundreds of years ago.

Reviews"A truly significant effort—every tribe should support this kind of writing about their history and traditions." —Vine Deloria, Jr

In Pictographs, Ojibway artist James Simon Mishibinijima brings to life the legends passed down to him by generations of Elders. In this collection of drawings, each image tells a story, silently communicating lessons of harmony, interconnectedness and peace.

Transcending the familiar iconography of the Near North—the crows, the wolves, the loons and the ravens—the drawings of James Simon, known as Mishibinijima, propel readers into a fantastical spirit world, one that is as powerful and mysterious as it is beautiful.

In Mishibinijima’s Pictographs, smooth, quiet drawings serve as a reflection of place, not just of the wild geography of forest and rock of his native Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island but also of the ancestral wisdom of the Elders, whose telling images remain graven into stone on the north shore of Lake Superior and at the burial sites of LaCloche Island.

Mishibinijima’s world is quiet, devoid of language—a world in which the artist listens to the fauna, in which pictographs articulate the essential interconnectedness of nature and in which images themselves become texts of dimly-remembered lessons recited by Elders long passed.

Reviews"Arresting, elegant, and powerful, the pictographs approach storytelling in an entirely new way to draw readers into a world of spirits, animals, lessons, and knowledge. A silent exploration of interconnectedness and history, the collection speaks volumes." — Open Book Ontario

"Unique and an inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, Pictographs: The Graphic Art of James Simon Mishibinijima is an uncommon and very special addition to personal, community, and academic libra[ries]...."— Midwest Book Review

Educator InformationThe Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools list recommends this resource for Grades 4-12 for these subjects: Art Education, Social Studies.

The language of pictographs is used in this work, not the English or Ojibwe languages.

Psycho. Sick. Dangerous. Réal Dufresne's reputation precedes him. When the mangled body of his best friend, Shaun, turns up in a field just east of town, tough-as-hell Réal blames himself. But except for the nightmares, all Ré remembers is beating the living crap out of Shaun the night of his death.

Shaun's girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Evie Hawley, keeps her feelings locked up tight. But now she's pregnant, and the father of her baby is dead. And when Réal looks to her to atone for his sins, everything goes sideways. Fast.

The tighter Evie and Réal get, the faster things seem to fall apart. And falling in love might just be the card that knocks the whole house down.

Reviews"McDonell has captured the brashness and insecurity of adolescence in this gravel-splattering joy-ride. Four teenagers attempt to discern what is real from what is not after trauma threatens to rob them all of their futures." — Karen Nesbitt, author of Subject to Change, November 2017

"[A] beautiful and painful novel…McDonell's background in creative writing and poetry is evident in this excellent debut novel…[Réal] is a character I don't think I've really experienced before…He's a character who I felt bad for, cheered for, wanted to slap at times, and who I needed to see find some hope in life…A strange, brutal, heartbreaking, and strangely uplifting novel about lies, love, friendship, courage, and the struggle to overcome guilt. Recommended."— Rob Bittner, Sense and Sensibility and Stories blog, November 2017

"Superb debut novel; the pain and angst of both Ré and Evie is palpable, and the struggles they face within their respective relationships are real and nuanced…This is a brutal, heartbreaking, and yet strangely uplifting novel about the consequences of lies, the gravity of love, and the courage it takes to prevail over self-condemnation."— Booklist, January 2018

"A book unlike anything I have read before…McDonell has developed characters who are diverse, multidimensional, and flawed, which makes them relatable…Black Chuck is an engaging and diverse book that would be a welcomed additional to any classroom or school library. Highly Recommended. " — CM Magazine, February 2018

"Atmospheric…Ojibwe mythology and language add texture as the mystery surrounding what really happened to Shaun, and who—or what—is at fault, deepens."— Publishers Weekly, March 2018

Educator InformationRecommended Ages: 12+

The Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools recommends this resource for Grades 9-12 for English Language Arts.

Adair’s Woodland style of painting is the highlight in this counting board book written in Ojibway and English. Beautifully designed birds and other wildlife sit against flat planes of colour in tones and shades ranging from bright reds to vibrant purples to pale blues. This is a gorgeous book for the very young that opens their eyes to art and their ears to language. An excellent introduction to Ojibway numbers, highlighting the culture’s deep relationship with animals.

First in a series, this book showcases Ojibway art and culture and teaches children to count in English and Ojibway.